Europa Halo Blackpool LAN announced

Europa Halo Blackpool, a new UK Halo LAN event set to take place later in the year, has been announced.

The 4v4 tournament will take place at the Winter Gardens on the weekend of Saturday November 11th and Sunday November 12th 2023.

Europa Halo made the announcement on its Twitter page, with a video, saying: “Halo community, we are proud to announce Europa Halo Blackpool! We hope to see you all at this Grassroots European Halo LAN.”

Europa Halo Blackpool also said international teams are welcome, which could give the event a lively atmosphere.

While concrete details for the Europa Halo Blackpool LAN event are scarce right now, organisers did say more information is coming on Tuesday August 1st, so keep an eye on their socials for more info.

Update: Team passes sold out within an hour of them going on sale, organisers said, but general admission tickets (priced at £34.50 each) are still available. You can get tickets to the Europa Halo Blackpool event on the Winter Gardens Blackpool website here.

On the competitive Halo subreddit, one redditor said: “Spectators are welcome, and the format will include an open bracket too!”

Europa Halo also added on Twitter: “If this event is a success I believe that the plan is to invite further communities to join us and grow something annual and bigger.”

Jamie Hughes of Jellymedia also said on LinkedIn: “We were approached by a consortium from Blackpool to target bringing esports to the town with the long term aim of making the town a destination for national and international esports. We loved the idea so helped make it happen.”

The event is the result of a partnership between several parties: Blackpool Pride of Place Partnership, Blackpool Council, Winter Gardens, Jellymedia and EuropaHalo.

It’s not the first time Blackpool has hosted Halo esports events. EGL has held several Halo tournaments in Blackpool back in the early 2010s, though it’s been a while since one took place there.

Esports News UK understands that European Halo has been left behind a little by HCS/Halo esports organisers. Community orgs like Europa Halo have supported the game from a grassroots perspective for years – and seem over the moon to have team pass tickets sold out one hour after they went on sale.

We also understand that HCS didn’t plan to host a LAN in Europe this year, despite a European team (UK org Quadrant) placing a record top three at the Halo HCS Arlington Major last month.

In other recent Europa Halo news, Quadrant also won the Summer Series, beating The Last Dance 4-1 in the grand final.

Europa Halo’s Twitter bio says its a grassroots member of the Halo Championship Series (HCS) and the largest Halo tournament organiser in Europe.

Thanks to FaffyWaffle for making us aware of this event.

Read more Halo content on Esports News UK here

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.